OCEAN CITY, Md.- Ocean City puts it's finishing touches on festival grounds as Oceans Calling begins Friday at noon. The festival sold all of it's 55,000 tickets, one sold in every single state in the United States.
Tom Perlozzo, the director of tourism and business development for the town says 50% of festival goers have never been to Maryland or Ocean City.
"Oceans Calling is a huge economic catalyst for Ocean City... heads and beds and people going to our restaurants. And the beauty about this is 50% of the people going haven’t been to Maryland or been to Ocean City to be more specific. We’re hoping they come back once they see how beautiful Ocean City is," said Perlozzo.
The 3 day festival takes place at the Ocean City Inlet and will enclose the boardwalk south of North Division Street.
Rain is expected this weekend from tropical storm Helene, but Perlozzo says the town is just expecting rain. It's good news for the town as Perlozzo explains rain does not bother festival goers too much, but strong wind can become dangerous.
"These are festival goers, they know what to expect, the high winds might cause a problem but we don't anticipate that happening at all," said Perlozzo.
The festival begins at noon Friday until 11:00 Sunday evening. Perlozzo says there are park and ride and Uber drop locations, all which can be found on the event's website.